NEW YORK, Jan 23 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 rose for a sixth
day on Wednesday after stronger-than-expected profits from IBM
and Google but the rally could be halted as Apple's after-hours
miss send its shares lower.

The S&P was just 4.7 percent from its all-time closing high
as IBM's and Google's earnings, released after Tuesday's close,
followed on the heels of stronger U.S. economic data.

"People were kind of nervous about earnings coming into this
quarter but numbers have shown so far strength in earnings,"
said King Lip, chief investment officer at Baker Avenue Asset
Management in San Francisco.

But Apple, still the largest U.S. publicly traded
company, fell more than 4 percent in extended trading after
sales of its flagship iPhone came in below analyst targets and
quarterly revenue slightly missed Wall Street expectations.

Declining issues beat advancers in both the NYSE and Nasdaq
during regular market hours, in a sign the market's rally may be
overstretched. The broad Russell 2000 index closed the
day down 0.3 percent after earlier hitting and intraday historic
high just below 900 points.

Shares in IBM Corp, the world's largest technology
services company, climbed 4.4 percent during regular market
hours to $204.72, providing just about all of the Dow's 67-point
gain.

Also helping the tech sector was a 5.5 percent jump in
Google Inc to $741.50. The Internet search company
reported its core business outpaced expectations and revenue was
higher than expected.

The S&P technology sector rose 1.2 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 66.96 points or
0.49 percent, to 13,779.17, the S&P 500 gained 2.22
points or 0.15 percent, to 1,494.78, and the Nasdaq Composite
added 10.49 points or 0.33 percent, to 3,153.67.

The benchmark S&P 500 is a mere 0.35 percent away from
hitting 1,500, a level not seen since Dec. 12, 2007.

Netflix shares soared 32 percent, above $136, after
the video subscription service said it added subscribers in the
United States and abroad and posted a quarterly profit.

Clearing a market hurdle, the U.S. House of Representatives
passed a Republican-led plan to extend the country's borrowing
authority until mid May. This delays a confrontation in Congress
similar to one in 2011, which generated a stalemate that
triggered the first-ever U.S. debt rating downgrade.

Thomson Reuters data through Wednesday showed that of the 99
S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far, 67.7
percent have topped expectations, above the 65 percent average
beat over the past four quarters.